The invention relates to a resilient support for receiving a force acting thereon along a certain direction, and wherein the force is opposed by a bearing counterforce acting at least partly along a direction opposite to the certain direction, and which includes a plurality of bar elements, at least two bar elements confronting one another, each of the two confronting bar elements having end regions, and forming rod pair means, linking bar means joining the confronting bar elements at a first set of connecting locations spaced at a distance from any end region of any of the confronting bar elements, two other bar elements, each connecting the end regions of the two confronting bar elements at a second set of connecting locations so as to form a closed structure therewith, the other bar elements forming bar pair means, at least two of the means being resilient in at least one of flexion and torsion, one force acting on a location of at least one of the other bar elements, the other force acting on the linking bar means, and at least one of the forces acting on a location of one of the bar means which is remote from the connecting location of the one of the bar means with the rod pair means.
It has already been proposed that the center points of a spring lever be fastened onto the end points of another spring lever supported in the middle, by which means a branched spring element is formed, which however involves the risk that in the case of point loading, the members fastened only at the center of the lever in the manner of a scale would, pivot around this middle point and hence yield to the loading.
From GB-PS 117126 (Hero) e.g. a spring element according to the general concept of claim 1 has become known. In this case the connecting bars located beneath a lattice of free and connected bars absorbing a force were of heavy construction, said connecting bars thereby absorbing the force applied to the lattice by elastic deformation or flection. Since due to their wavy form the connecting bars provided relatively soft springing action, the overlying lattice was relatively stiff, for which reason elastic blocks had to be arranged between said lattice and said connecting bars at the edge of this spring element. For this reason, the spring action of this known spring element was limited essentially to the connecting bars.
Another element according to the general concept of claim 1 has become known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,892,315 and 3,173,270 (Blancato). In this case a lattice as mentioned above is pushed upward along a sloping track, providing the spring action for a fender on a quay. The lattice itself is rigid.
Finally, a similar rigid lattice has also been proposed in FR-PS 2362308 (commissariat) which, however, in reality does not act as a spring, but as a damper. In this case the bars are of tubular construction which (unelastically) deform under mechanical stress.
It is therefore an object of the invention to devise a spring element or resilient support such that almost the entire structural height can be utilized for spring travel, and so that the spring characteristic can be adapted in a wide range to the respective requirements in spite of a low structural height, and that the entire structural height can be utilized for spring travel, even when forming spring devices made up of spring elements. In addition, the spring element, according to the present invention, has the object of countering a force to be absorbed by a support force which is as uniform as possible, regardless of whether the force is applied at individual points point-wise or is distributed over a larger surface.